The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica

The European E-Business Report 2005
1.1 Adoption of ICT Infrastructure and ICT Investments
1.1.1 Deployment of ICT network infrastructure
Advancement in internet connectivity
The basic ICT infrastructure prerequisites for using e-business are quite good in all sectors and
countries that were surveyed in 2005. 96% of employees from the 10 sectors studied worked in
companies that that are connected to the internet.
Exhibit 1.1-1: Basic ICT infrastructure: Internet access in 2003/04
Internet
access
Analogue
modem
ISDN
… of those
DSL
Other
broadband
> 2 Mbit/s
bandwidth
Weighting empl. firms empl. firms empl. firms empl. firms empl. firms empl. firms
Total (EU-7) 96 91 11 18 21 25 43 45 26 11 19 9
By sector (EU-7)
Food & beverages 95 83 10 26 24 24 40 46 24 4 14 5
Textile & clothing 98 93 11 26 21 24 51 39 19 8 14 4
Publishing & printing 99 98 8 17 13 15 43 53 38 14 32 13
Pharmaceutical 100 96 7 16 8 22 42 48 41 14 33 11
Machinery & equipment 99 95 4 18 21 34 46 42 36 9 20 7
Automotive 100 92 4 18 12 24 34 47 57 12 40 11
Aeronautics 100 99 2 13 1 22 41 49 51 18 41 13
Construction 95 91 14 20 27 31 45 38 14 9 10 7
Tourism 92 90 14 19 23 23 43 49 19 9 15 9
IT services 100 100 5 7 9 9 44 64 47 27 39 20
By firm size (EU-7)
Micro (0-9 empl.) 91 19 25 45 10 9
Small (10-49 empl.) 96 15 29 46 13 8
Medium (50-249 empl.) 99 6 17 53 25 21
Large (250+ empl.) 99 4 14 37 47 33
By country (10 sectors)
Czech Republic 97 93 9 11 24 30 15 22 37 28 14 11
France 91 76 20 32 6 5 51 58 26 4 23 17
Germany 99 97 3 7 32 54 43 40 28 3 22 6
Italy 97 95 12 19 26 32 46 46 17 2 14 6
Poland 98 93 16 19 19 27 27 19 33 19 11 5
Spain 96 95 10 13 9 11 71 71 13 8 22 13
United Kingdom 94 92 12 27 23 15 25 27 36 37 18 8
Base (100%) All Firms with internet access
Base: "All" = Firms using computers. N = 5218 (Total, EU-7).
Weighting: "firms" = % of firms; "empl." = firms representing …% of employment (in the sector / country)
Source: e-Business W@tch (e-Business Survey 2005)
However, a closer look at these figures reveals that there are still areas where connectivity should be
further improved. In the food and beverages industry, for instance, 17% of companies – although
using computers – said that they are not yet online. Although internet access is not a necessity for
each and every firm, it can be assumed that it could be useful for at least some of these firms. For
example, even small food companies may gain advantage simply from having access to web-based
information resources.
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